Favorites

3 Favorite Purchases:
Our Computer
Mine and Kelly's wedding rings
Our Wii

3 favorite movies:
Sweeney Todd
Lucky Number Slevin
Serenity

3 things I haven't done yet:
Bought a house
Lived in another state
owned a brand new car

3 favorite dishes:
Chicken Parmigiana
Raspberry Pie
Kelly's Tacos

3 favorite shows:
Chuck
Two and a Half Men
Firefly (I don't care if it's not on the air anymore, it's still a favorite

3 activities you enjoy:
Playing with Anni
Playing Wii
Visiting with family

3 places I have traveled:
Germany
England
Caribbean

3 favorite treats:
pomegranates
chocolate oranges
Haribo frogs

3 things I would buy if money were no issue:
A nice house with lots of land
A restaurant for Kelly to run
A new car

3 people you want to tag:
Sid
Grandma
Meg

Baby's First Christmas

This was Annika's first Christmas. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with Kelly's parents. They were so happy to see her.

Here's a video of Anna opening her very first present.

5 Months Old

Anni is just getting smarter everyday. She's likely going to learn her name this month, start raising her arms when she wants to be picked up, and giving us hugs and kisses back. I'm betting she's going to figure out sitting on her own too. Crawling is just around the corner!

We're excited for her first Christmas, even though she won't be able to do much, it's going to be fun.

A New Pediatrician

We've been arguing about Anni's puking and the lack of anything the pediatrician is doing about it, so we made an appointment with a new one, and are going to start seeing her instead. I like the doctors equally, but Kelly prefers Dr. Boehm (pronounced Bame, in case you care) and her office is much closer to home, 12th Street instead of at Ogden Regional Hospital.

She looked Anna over, who now weighs 13 pounds and 3 ounces, and said she's healthy and a happy baby. We described the problem and she said that it's definitely reflux. She gave us a sample of baby Prevacid to give her and made an appointment to see her again in 2 weeks to decide if it's helping or if we need to try Prilosec instead. She says that it probably won't help her to throw up less, but it will decrease the acid in it, so she's more comfortable and it's less irritating to her skin. We have to hold the pill inside her cheek until it dissolves. We tried that the first time and she wasn't happy about it. Today I tried the other method, dissolving it in water and giving it to her in a dropper. That worked much better, so we'll stick to doing it that way.

Thanksgiving

I forgot my camera, but I got some pictures from the weekend at least.

There were just shy of 30 people packed into Mom and Dad's new addition. It wasn't a tight fit really. The older kids were playing in the living room and basement with the TV's, the younger kids ran circles around the tables, and the adults just chatted in the great room and passed around the babies. Well, they passed around Annika. Josh didn't want anything to do with anyone beside Kelly or Sarah.

He's just a big baby, still much bigger than Anni. He seems like he should be older, except they make the same noises and that gives away that they're the same age. Josh liked her. He stopped fussing at one point because she was right there by him.

Mom, I think he's going to eat me...

I didn't get to spend much time with family because I had to work, but I've got more time off around Christmas, so I should be able to visit everyone.

Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy having 3 of the 4 grand kids there.

There's nothing more tiring than packing babies around though.

Sitting

Anni is working out the kinks of sitting on her own. I think she likes the new sensation of tossing herself backwards.

4th Month Pediatrician Visit

Miss Anni is 12.8 pounds and is 24.25 inches long. That's the 25th percentile for height and weight, and she's in the 10th percentile for head circumference. That means that she's heavier and taller than 25% of the babies her age, and has a bigger head than 10% of them. She's just little!

Hi Mom!

All said and done, she is very healthy, developing perfectly, and loves her doctor. I've never seen her smile and coo so much for anyone except Kelly and me. She's hitting all her milestones right on track and even a little early on the basic motor skills.

What? I didn't do anything...

She had more vaccine shots today. It's absolutely heartbreaking, but some baby Tylenol, a cat nap, and a warm bottle later, she's feeling much better.

Can't...quite...make it....

Since we're still concerned about how much she throws up, the doc scheduled us an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist to do an analysis on her to determine if we do need to do something more than just wait it out. We got the go ahead on rice cereal, which should also help, so I'll be posting a video of that soon.

4 Months Old

Anna is 4 full months old. She's also sick at the moment. She had a fever of 101.5 on Wednesday night, but it broke after a few hours and she's been sitting at 99.1, which is pretty normal for her, ever since. She's got a stuffy nose and a little cough, so do I for that matter, and it's making both of us cranky.

She's supposed to start giggling regularly and get more and more interactive this upcoming month. We'll probably be able to start giving her rice cereal after her appointment on Monday. We're going to have to come up with a high chair before too much longer. She's starting to sit up a little bit. If we sit her up and let go she can balance for a second or two, sometimes. She can sit for several minutes if she's balancing herself by holding onto our hands.

She definitely recognizes Kelly, Grandma Sonia, and me and is all smiles when she see one of us, assuming she's not cranky. She looks for sounds, especially voices, and is starting to join in on conversations. She's taking an interest in toys, so we're going to need more of those! Her favorite plaything is still her hands. She'll look at them, suck on them, and will play with them for longer than anything else. She's not terribly particular about whose hands she's sucking on. Mine and Kelly's fingers regularly get grabbed and stuffed in her mouth. Basically everything she manages to grab gets put in her mouth.

Sweetheart Tag

1. What is his full name?
Kelly Raymond Paskett

He was named after his mom's father, Raymond, and grandfather, Clarence (whose nickname was Kelly.)

2. How old is he?

29

3. Do you have any nicknames for him? What are they?
Of course... Sweetie, Muffin, Husby, etc.

4. What color are his eyes?
Blue

5. What color is his hair?

Brown

6. How tall is he?

6' 3''

7. What is his favorite color?

Baby Blue

8. What is his favorite food?

Pretty much beef anything.

9. What is his favorite past time(s)?

Kelly loves to just stay home and cuddle and watch TV. As far as actual activities go, he adores golfing, backpacking, and cooking.

10. What is his favorite sport?

Golf and Soccer

11. What does he want to be when he grows up?

A chef

12. What does he do that surprises you?

He does a lot that surprises me, not always good things. Usually I get surprise cuddles that scare me or I wake up to baby fingers in my nose.

13. What's your favorite feature about him?

I love his big muscly arms. ;)

14. What's your favorite quality about him?
I love his sense of humor and I love how much he tells me he loves me.

15. What do you admire most about him?

His devotion to family. He'll do almost anything for his parents, mine, me, or the baby.

16. What's a hidden talent that he has?

Cooking, he is an amazing cook.

17. Where did you meet?

At Best Buy in Logan, we worked together.

18. When, where, and what did you do for your first date?

Our first date was New Year's Ever 2005. We just hung out at his apartment with his roommates and their dates.

19. When and where was your first kiss?

New Year's Eve 2005, on his front lawn.

20. What first caught your eye or attracted you to him?

His cologne, then his sense of humor.

21. Who said 'I love you' first?

Him. February 6, 2006.

22. How long did you date before you were married?

1 year and 4 days

23. How long have you been married?

Just shy of 2 years

24. Does he have any nicknames for you? What are they?

He usually never calls me by my first name, I'm just sweetie, honey, chicken lips (not one of my favorites)

25. What are your favorite things to do as a couple?

Just spend time together, whether it be cuddling on the couch watching TV or hanging out with our families. Playing the Wii together is our newest pastime.

Boys Will Be Boys

I took Anni and went to a girl's night out tonight, while Kelly stayed home and hung out with his brother, Ross.

I should preface this by saying that we bought our one and only Christmas gift for each other at the beginning of the week, a Nintendo Wii. They were in-stock at amazon.com, and we jumped on it, since we couldn't get one last Christmas. Being the instant gratification seekers that we are, we immediately started playing it.

Kelly and Ross rented MarioKart and Lego Star Wars and vegged out for the 5 hours I was gone. I came home to this:

They rented the game, but bought the light saber attachments for the controllers.

In Kelly's defense, Ross bought them for us as a belated birthday present for Kelly, and Kelly wants to buy the Lego Star Wars game with our spending money from the next paycheck, and they are kinda cool, but I almost came unglued before the explanation.

In summation, boys will be boys, and I need to remember not to leave my husband unattended with his brothers.

Picture Tag

I was tagged by Tami.
1. Go to your pictures.
2. Upload 4th picture from the 4th folder.
3. Post, and explain what the picture is of.
4. Tag your friends.

This is a picture of my Grandma Doris holding Annika, I think for the first time. Anna is her 17th and youngest great grandchild. I am her 8th and youngest grandchild.

I tag Grandma Sonia and Lyndee; time to update those blogs!

Time for a Change

I got tired of my hair and decided it was time for a change.

So, I went from this:

to this:
I'm hoping the curls will be a little quicker and a little cuter than just plain Jane straight.

What do you all think?

A Day with Annika

I thought I would blog the play by play of my Wednesday off with Anni. I think it'll be interesting for parents to see how their kids compare and for non-parents to get a glimpse of a typical day.

12:30 AM: Anna finally fell asleep for the night.

3 AM: Fussed for a minute, went back to sleep.

6 AM: Cried for about 5 seconds, fell asleep again.

7:45 AM: Woke up for breakfast and a diaper change.

8 AM: Finished her bottle, fell asleep.

9 AM: Woke up, ready for cuddles.

9:30 AM: Fell asleep in my arms, so I put her down and started the laundry.

10:30 AM: Awake and ready for her second breakfast and in need of a new diaper.

11 AM: Quick breakfast for mom while making funny faces at the munchkin.

11:15 AM: First spit-up of the day. Looks like I'm going to be washing my pajama pants, sweater, and bedspread. Two more spit ups promptly followed while I changed the laundry.

11:45 AM: Anna started fussing and grumping from a sour tummy. (I can tell it's a bad belly because she's burped, but keeps spitting up.) Cue the warm rice pack on the tummy.


11:50 AM: She's asleep. Probably just a cat nap, but I can get started on the dishes now.

12:20 PM: She's awake and after a diaper change, is, for the moment, happy to sit up against Mommy's pillow and watch the TV flicker and mom fold clothes.

12:40 PM: Anni's sick of sitting, so I laid her down on the bed with her gym and she's happy again. She scratched her cheek so I clipped her nails, which she doesn't like much because it requires holding still. I usually wait till she's asleep, but she was in a good mood, so I just did it quick. Now for a laundry switch and a stove top scrub while she's still amused with the gym.

1:10 PM: Fussing is promptly resolved with her lunchtime bottle.

1:25 PM: More spit-up. A new burp cloth is required.

1:50 PM: Another sour belly. A new diaper and warm rice pack later, she's fairly happy again.

2:25 PM: Sound asleep for her afternoon catnap. Time for a quick shower for Mama..

2:55 PM: Awake, smiling, and farting. She is her father's daughter.

3:15 PM: My little monster decided to start crying, only stopping when picked up and carried
around. Instead, she's getting a bottle then a trip to the grocery store.

4:00 PM: She fussed all through the store. I don't blame her, I hate Walmart too.

4:55 PM: She's done nothing but cry since we got home. She fusses while I hold her, cries and screams if I set her down. A diaper change didn't help. Either she's got an upset tummy, is tired, or is getting Kelly's nasty cold.

5:05 PM: Still crying. Temperature is 98.7, so she's not sick yet.

5:10 PM: Sleeping. She was just tired and cranky.

5:35 PM: Awake and much happier, hope she stays that way while we eat dinner.

5:50 PM: She was good while we ate, but now is crying again. She stopped after her dinner bottle.

6:10 PM: After some spitting up and another blanket that has to be washed, it's tummy time!

6:55 PM: She's been such a good girl. She played with us and then she rolled over! It took a fart and a grunt to get her over the edge, but she did it all on her own!

7:05 PM: Switch the laundry, then it's funny noise time while Mommy folds clothes.

7:26 PM: Maybe not. Switching the laundry turned into cleaning the kitchen, again. Funny noises with Daddy turned into nose vomit, mom's side of the comforter needing more of a wash, another vomit covered blanket, and a diaper and onesie change.

7:35 PM: Now funny noise time.

7:55 PM: Bath time!

8:10 PM: In her bed, half asleep. I'm kinda doubting it'll last.

8:35 PM: Awake and wanting dinner.

9:00 PM: Bottle is finally gone, baby is back in bed. So begins the nightly bedtime battle.

9:35 PM: Still awake, attempting a diaper change to get her to sleep.

9:40 PM: Spit up requiring pajama change.

9:45 PM: More spit up, another blanket to be washed and boogers to be sucked.

10:20 PM: Starting to fall asleep on Daddy's chest.

10:35 PM: Still awake. I'm hoping another diaper change and the rice pack will work.

10:45 PM: No luck. We're going for a car ride.

11:15 PM: Sound asleep at last.

Hopefully that was educational or at least interesting.

Annika's First Halloween

For Anna's first Halloween, we dressed her up as a pea pod. I have to work tonight, so we took her trick or treating in Logan on Sunday the 26th and in Plain City on the 30th. She was a bit of a pill on Sunday and didn't want to be in her costume, so she threw up in it. Thankfully, it's machine washable. Once Daddy picked her up and started playing with her, she was much happier.

Hi, Mommy!

Don't even think about putting me down.

She was an angel yesterday and was just thrilled to be the center of attention. After a lot of looking, listening, and drooling, she fell asleep in Great Grandma Doris's arms.

I'm very green, Mom. I don't think I like it.

Happy to just hang out with Grandma.

I'm a sweet pea!

Out for the count.

Cold Season Has Arrived

Annika has her first identifiable head cold. Her little nose is running off her face and she's sneezing up a storm. We bought a humidifier for her room. Any suggestions for helping her feel better?

3 Months Old

Annika is 3 months old today. I've determined that the cause of her grumpiness in the evenings is that she's overtired. According to my baby newsletter, she should be sleeping for 10 hours at night, which she usually does, but needs 5 more hours of sleep during the day spread out through 2 to 3 naps. She's not getting that extra sleep, because she doesn't want to miss what's going on.

She's very close to rolling over, but can't seem to get her arms out of the way. Her grip is very good and loves playing with her plastic keys. She's very talkative too. Today she was trying to mimic the noises Kelly was making at her. She has a very distinctive "ah-goo," "ah-oo," "ah-bawk," and "nuh-uh" when she's cranky and often "maa!" when she's fake crying.

She's starting to splash with her legs, but slides down every time she does it, so it scares her.

I love bath time!

These fingers are so tasty I want to eat them all at the same time, but I'm not giving up the pacifier either!

Look at how good I can hold my head up.

3rd Month Pediatrician Visit

We took Anni in to the doctor today in an attempt to figure out her tummy problems. She looks healthy, feels healthy, and acts healthy. She weighs 11 pounds and 4 ounces, so in the 25th percentile for weight. Dr. Qader says she's gaining weight right on track, so he's not worried about any nutritional inadequacies from puking so much. She's had a cold, so that could be part of the problem lately. With the mucus in her throat her first instinct is to puke it up. He says that if we're really concerned about it, he can call and set up the esophageal scope without any problems, but he doesn't feel like there's enough of a problem to warrant it. Babies just puke. He's loathe to put her on any medications that she doesn't absolutely need, and I agree. He told me to try and only feed her 2 ounces at a time, but to do it every hour and a half to see if that would help. I tried, but she wasn't having any of that. A really cranky 15 minutes was all the pause I could get out of her. She's just so miserable after she eats, and I wish I could do something to help. Unless it gets worse we're either going to have to wait until she grows out of this or find an other doctor. I like our doctor, and don't want to go to another one that will just rely on pills to fix everything. My next guess is to try and cut things out of my diet and see if it helps at all.

Going Private

Ok, given the diaperless nature of Anni's first laugh, I'm moving the video to the baby blog and changing that one to private. I'm still leaving the family one public though. Send me an email at sarahpaskett@gmail.com for an invite to it.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I thought that I should do a blog showing how quickly Annika has grown during the past few weeks. Time really does fly.

July 22nd

July 29th

August 7th

August 10th

August 20th

August 28th

September 6th

September 15th

September 21st

September 28th

October 8th